Week 6 – Planning

Hi everyone,

I hope all is well as we move into the second week of Unit 3.

Thinking about Data

This past week you considered the uses of data in decision making. There have been some really great examples and discussions shared so far, and issues around privacy (students), what might be good uses of data (what kind of questions to ask including quantitative and qualitative), challenges with collecting data, ethical uses of data, data to support learning and curricular change, data to support technology implementations (and the information it can/cannot provide), and ownership have surfaced. I know many of you just got your posts and/or comments up yesterday, so I look forward to your conversations. If we go back to the original posts from our expert colleagues that we considered around introducing change, you will see these leaders considering similar aspects that touch on data.  Privacy issues, policy/guidelines development for use of data, ensuring broad stakeholder consultation, and leveraging data to help inform technology implementation projects to focus on design/pedagogy/practice and promote connections were all surfaced in their posts as well. I think the value of considering data is that it does get you thinking about how decisions are made about the technologies, that we use in our teaching and learning contexts and how that impacts the learning environment.

Moving on to Planning

This week you should be continuing to work in your teams for Assignment 2 and hopefully have been able to touch base and start planning. We now move into another aspect of planning in leading change – managing projects. Some of you may be very familiar with project management, but for those who are not there are some readings that provide an overview. For those who are familiar, the Conway et al. reading that links design thinking and systems change I hope will give you a different perspective.  For this week’s activity, you will head back to your own blogs, and reflect your experiences of projects you have been involved in and consider how you would implement a project in your own context. This activity will get you thinking again about your final project.  Just a reminder that participating in conversations with others via comments is part of your contribution mark.

Housekeeping

Your Assignment 1 feedback is now in Moodle. I really enjoyed reading and exploring your visuals and narratives and I help the feedback is helpful.

Synchronous session: Planned for this Tuesday, March 1st, at 5:30 pm in the Zoom room. Would be great to check in and chat about the planning unit, team projects/toolkits, and any other questions.